


Farcaller

by Vreliskriri



Series: Blinking stars [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Exploration of Summoner arts in light of their roots, Summoner Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Summoner | SMN (Final Fantasy XIV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:14:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24162640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vreliskriri/pseuds/Vreliskriri
Summary: “Altering an Egi’s physical form… I wonder what the limitations are.”
Relationships: Alisaie Leveilleur & Warrior of Light, Alisaie Leveilleur/Warrior of Light
Series: Blinking stars [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1688869
Comments: 6
Kudos: 10





	Farcaller

Trying to be brave for each other was all well and good until the Black Wolf came back from the dead and brought a comatose Alphinaud for a peace offering.  
  
Once we got back to the Rising Stones, Alisaie asked me to sleep in Alphinaud’s room. The room next to hers, a locked door between them. Twin keys. It had been empty for too long, she said, and now that we knew it’d stay empty for a while, she’d feel better with me on the other side of the wall. I nodded, got my things and hugged her goodnight. 

The lack of windows didn’t bother me, as the fireplace was lit when I came in. On the desk there was a box of “Candles” with a small set of drawers on its each side, just as neatly labeled “Things” and “Things of importance”. The latter I could only assume was for work while the former had paintbrushes peeking out of the bottom drawer. The desk itself was both big and clear of clutter. The area around it, however, was covered from wall to ceiling with drawings and schematics of Alphinaud’s many Carbuncles. I sat down on the bed and sighed heavily.  
  
“Alphinaud… Gods, what am I going to do without you?!”  
  
There was a startled silence. I put a hand over my mouth. I hadn’t meant to think out loud. Not that loud, at least. Then it registered that it hadn't been me, and what had felt like a cry had been little more than a whisper. The door between this room and that of Alisaie’s just wasn’t a very thick one. She’d forgotten about that as well. 

I looked at Alphinaud’s keyring, still clasped tightly in my hand. “Alisaie?”  
  
There was no answer.  
  
“You wouldn’t know it nowadays, what with my constant zigzagging all over the realm, but I tend to sleep better during the day. Instead of going to bed, I was thinking of running a small experiment related to summoner arts. Is that okay?”  
  
“Mhm.”  
  
“Great. I’ll unlock the door from this side. Feel free to knock if you need anything.”  
  
“...thank you, Rine.”  
  
I lit some candles and opened my grimoire, flipping through the pages as the book lit up in a circular dance of oranges and yellows. Each Anima weapon had been a marvel in its own right, but this newest one was very special. According to Gerolt, watching me chase an escaped flock of element charts around Helix had given him the idea. I had very much hoped no one saw. Still, he had been incredibly thoughtful in designing the Book of the Mad Queen. 

For the longest time I’d been dreaming of book covers made with enough tiny clasps and pockets to hold the unholy number of notes that I needed to have with me at all times. Among them were now the scribbles on altering an Egi.  
  
Forcing a primal’s essence into the familiar shape of a Carbuncle had become very easy very quickly, but any other form I tried to make it assume would dissipate... “between seconds”, was the wording here. But, that was many moons ago, when I had been making do with a lesser weapon and lacked a sense of urgency. I was sure to do better now. It had to amount to _something._  
  
There was a piece of paper on the floor. I had to have dropped it while looking for the other relevant notes. This was an older one, folded in two with scrawled lettering on top. G'raha's handwriting. It _had_ been a few years, but I could still read it fine, so I put the book down on the floor, rolled up my sleeves and got to work. The face paint I’d brought with me from my room, but I’d forgotten the brush that went with it, so one of Alphinaud’s smaller paint brushes had to do. Slowly and with great care I pulled the patterns from my memory onto the skin of my lower arms. Every advantage I could get, I was going to need.  
  
I lost track of time at some point between the first brush stroke and the last. The feeling was not unlike a Dreadwyrm trance - a clear-headed focus only on the challenge ahead. Calmly, I put away the paint, cleaned the brush and put it halfway into the open drawer to dry, careful to not smudge any of the patterns. Then I sat back down to wait for them to dry as well.

These experiments had been draining before, so I would only attempt to alter each Egi once, then wash off the paint and go to bed. Ifrit first. To think fiery claws could so easily turn into soft, pleasantly warm paws… it had to be how used I was to conjuring the image of a Carbuncle in my mind. I only needed practice. And I had to stop thinking about Carbuncles. In Alphinaud’s room on his Carbuncle carpet. Really I just had to not think of Alphinaud- or Thancred, or Urianger and- 

“Hells take me and be quick with it.”  
  
Focus. I needed to focus on fire, the shapes it could take, how it looked, how it burned.  
  
Fire was in a constant state of change. Fire was change. In the woods, roaming free, it would branch out like a tree, with brilliant oranges, yellows and reds flying out in every direction like the constellations on the open book in my lap. I had seen a forest like that once. Fire had covered the branches and eaten the leaves to replace with its own. The next day, there would only be ashes, but into the ashes people would plant new trees.  
  
Out of Ifrit’s fire I was going to make a sapling. Far-reaching roots, a delicate stem and softly swishing leaves. Roots, stem, leaves. I stood up. Held the Book of the Mad Queen up with two hands. Whispered the right words.  
  
Yes.  
There was a spark in the air before me. It turned into a flicker that grew and brightened and branched out. 

_Four… five seconds… six..._

Warm roots reached out to curl around my arms,  
  
... _twenty two… twenty three..._

soft leaves brushed against my face. Bright. I had to close my eyes, for just a second, I thought, but the time between one second and another seemed to blur.   
  
_One minute._

These leaves smelt of summer… and I was slowly sinking into the roots’ grip as the midsummer fire burned through my life. HELLS NO.  
  
I slammed the book shut with a hissed command and fell to the floor as the sapling vanished. It was completely dark. Had I fainted? No… still conscious, but every flame in the room was gone. The candles, the fireplace, all burned out. 

_A breakthrough!_  
  
How much further could I take this with time? Every gear in my brain was humming, brimming with excitement. I almost wanted to try again right away, but my senses got the better of me. Enough playing with fire for one night. The plan was one attempt per Egi for a reason. Next… Which one would be next?  
  
Wind. It was everywhere I went, but I could never feel it as deeply as I had in the nowhere town where I drew my first breath. Wind was the only kind of change that we had there. In my hair, rustling through the dunegrass and making moonlight shiver where it met the sea.  
  
Wind could bite, claw its way into the marrows of bones, but it didn’t have to. Unlike fire, wind did not need to eat away at the world to change it. It simply moved things from where they had been to new places. Wind brought rain clouds and carried wishes on little paper planes. Me, it had taken from nowhere to Limsa.   
  
Where could _I_ take it? How could I shape it? How might I breathe shapes out of movement?  
 _  
_ _Breathe out.  
_ _  
_ _  
_I remember feeling the air leave my lungs. Past that point, it’s all blank.  
 _  
_What most likely happened is all the air from the room went into the summoning, and the resulting entity helped itself to what was left in my body. Then it dissipated, most likely after I lost consciousness, just as a normal Egi would. In any case, it wasn’t there anymore when Alisaie came in and found me half dead on the floor. Which, really, was the last thing she needed to see.  
  
Understandably, after that, Alisaie wanted me to give up further experiments, scientific discovery be damned. We ended up with a compromise- I would not try again if she wasn't there with me.   
  
I didn't think she would be gone two days later. 


End file.
